They Are Billions Update: Early Access Launch Coming Soon!

Greetings!

We would like to announce that the Early Access launch is coming soon. But first, let’s talk about the beta program and the supporting campaign.

The Beta Program Exploded! What happened?

For those that have not followed the game updates, here is a small summary.
We first announced the game in July 2017. Since then, we published updates periodically revealing more info about the game. Over time, interest and popularity grew for They Are Billions. Initially, we announced Early Access would be released in Fall 2017 with only the Survival mode. Then in Spring 2018, we’d release the campaign. But after we thought about it for awhile, we thought perhaps that the Survival mode would not be enough content to justify the Early Access launch. Therefore, we decided to delay the launch and only release it when both modes were ready in 2018.

Over time, the hype grew and we received a lot of emails from people that wanted to pre-order to back the game because they loved the art, gameplay, theme… So we thought it would be a nice idea to launch a crowdfunding campaign as we did with Lords of Xulima, which worked very well.

In Update #5, we asked the players for feedback on what we should do because we weren’t sure if we should run a Kickstarter campaign or just create a place to support us directly from our website at Numantian Games. We all agreed that the second option was the best, so we worked on setting up a page for players to back us directly. Additionally, we thought that it would be a great idea to let the backers play the Survival mode as beta testers to give us feedback to improve and polish the game. This is exactly what we did for Lords of Xulima. Everything sounded perfect 🙂

So we did it all on Halloween. We asked for a pack of beta keys from Steam and launched the supporting web. In the beginning, we temporarily restricted the Ranger Edition to avoid having too many players for the very first version of the game because of all the possible bugs. However, many fans voiced their opinion that they felt betrayed for having the Ranger edition locked. It was then that we enabled the Ranger Edition.

This is when everything really began to snowball. People started to play it, upload videos on Youtube, and spread the word. Some big Youtubers even joined the party, building even more hype and expectations for They Are Billions. In less than two weeks, the Ranger keys sold out. A few days later…the Soldier Edition, two days after that…the Sniper Edition… What?????

And during all this debacle, we, the developers were working day and night fixing all the problems and solving lots of issues with hardware compatibility. As we created a custom engine for They Are Billions, it had only been tested on a few dozen different PCs. Now we suddenly had 10K players testing it at the same time! And during the development, we also had to attend to thousands of forum posts with bugs, feedback, and thousands of emails with crash reports that the game sends automatically. We also received hundreds of emails every day of people complaining because they wanted to play the game but didn’t receive a key, or that they did not know that it was a pre-order, or that we were the most greedy company in the world for selling a game for $250 (the Lucifer Edition)… !!!

We would have loved to have the ability to save the game before the launch of the pre-order web so we could return to that point and do things differently, but the real life, as in They Are Billions, works in Ironman mode.

The Good News

First, a big thank you for all that have backed They Are Billions. We are very, very happy and appreciative. That extra income will be so helpful for creating a great campaign that They Are Billions and its players deserve. THANK YOU!!

Second, the game reception has been extremely positive from the beta players, Youtubers, and all the non-buyers that write to us just to say that they love the game and want to play it now. And this is just the Survival Mode! Wait until you see the campaign, which is the main mode that conceived They Are Billions!

Third, during these last three weeks, we have been able to polish a lot the game, solving many issues, bugs, and exploits. We now feel that it is in very good shape. But of course, we will continue the process of fixing and polishing. So, in order to allow everybody to play the game, especially the ones that have pre-ordered it, we will try to release the game on Steam Early Access as soon as possible. We expect to release it in a few weeks. We will add some additional features to the Survival Mode (as you can see in the What’s Next post on the forum). Also, we will add Achievements and Steam cards. A basic tutorial for new players will also be implemented.

Initially, the game will have only the Survival Mode during the Early Access phase. We will continue to expand and improve this mode while we work on the campaign. We expect the campaign to be ready Spring 2018.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts!

See you soon!

  • Posted by Julie
  • On November 22, 2017
  • 22 Comments
Tags: early access, numantian games, they are billions

22 Comments

Hasan
Beta key ?
Jan Kolloch
Sounds like a plan ;)
Cory Macdonald
Your game looks amazing. Whatever your plan is I hope it works. I am just looking forward to getting to play it and the sooner the better in my opinion, bugs or not.
Stefan Mader
I am very disappointed. I saw the "IMPORTANT! No more beta keys available for this edition. The Steam key will be sent when the game is launched on Steam." So .... more Beta Keys PLEASE ..... or Go to Early Acces with what you have .... waiting is.... very ... Maybee i should attack the Walls ..... Sooooooooooooooooo where is Key? :P
Cal
I am very excited for not only the game but for you guys also, I hope the game gets all the attention it deserves and I will definitely be playing a ton of this game, I have already shared it amongst friends which several have said they will pick it up when available. I hope you will release a version of the game on steam that we can upgrade to so we can get all future DLC included, even if it costs double i'd buy it. This game will be amazing with campaign but I know that just survival alone I will be entertained for hundreds of hours. Only thing I ask if before you release to early access is that your team are happy and prepared to update any bugs that immediately come to light as nothing is worse when something game breaking is in and no solution for several of weeks later. I hope this game comes to Early Access where it will be welcomed with nothing but loads of Positive reviews as I want to see this game up there on the top sellers. I do think its really important that this game is out before Christmas on EA but be sure not to burn yourselves out, I can tell you are all quite passionate about this game, don't let the public burn you out! Wish you all the best in the next few weeks
Stuart
This is no help to you whatsoever guys but do whatever you think is best. Said it before but I absolutely love the look, backstory, steam punk world, graphics and game play and although I've got 80 hours into it and have only once or twice even come close to beating the final wave I just cannot stop playing it. Can't wait for campaign :)
Vegard Bjurgren
All good things come to those who wait. Gonna enjoy this game bigtime. Keep up the good work👍
Christian Jensen
I think that this sounds great. I got the Soldier edition the day that it launched and am loving the game, great job guys!!
Aaron
YES! bring it out asap i want to play it so bad i pre-ordered it bc it seemed so fun and challenging bring me THEY ARE BILLIONS! just amazing keep up the good work!
Mackey
This game is in my top 10 favorite best games I have ever played. Thank you so much for having the backer beta program. I will support what ever you guys decide. I think in it's current state as long as it's not more than $20 in early access going for EA now is a great idea!
KingxOfxThexVoid
I preordered waited 10 days to find out sadly keys were out so hope the game goes early on steam asap (I just so wanna play) having said that I waited a loooooong time for a good basebuilding experience where you can defend turtle expand so have high hopes for this keep up the good work
wasmadeinthe80s
If I purchase a copy of the game via the website will I be sent a code once Early Access on Steam goes live, or should I just wait and buy via Steam?
Gabriel
well, hope you guys get all attention that need it for success, because - the game looks very cool... can't wait for release date...
Ripped Off Gamer
Question is: why only distribute it via Steam? Other games, like Factorio, did a great job with early access (I play it more outside Steam than inside). I kinda feel ripped off with this whole Steam keys issue. There's a BIG difference between "not providing a Steam Beta key" and "not being able to play the game at all". I bought it after the keys ended because I thought I would be able to play outside Steam - that was not the case. It looks like a great game, but you need to ramp up in the administration game.
William Christopher Allen
Well damn, I just learned about this game randomly through Youtube from a channel called SplatterCatGaming and now I come here to find out I have to wait a bit to get my hands on it. Consider yourselves +1 excited future player.
liu hao
Excelleent game! I can not wait to play They Are Billions.I have added it in my STEAM wish list. SO, I am sorry to play it for free until i can buy it on steam,because killing zombies or being killed is so excited.SORRY!
Adomas
Ohhh, can't wait for Early Access! Only 3 days left... Just I wonder, will it run on GNU/Linux? Or I will need to boot into Windows again..?
Ripped Off Gamer
So, does this early access mean I'll receive my steam key?
Daniel Bennett
Hello, been waiting for this game for a month, early access just started and purchased it immediately on steam. downloaded and installed fine, however upon launching the game it tells me that I need to install slimdx.exe / NET framework V4.5.2 even though this is not mentioned in the requirements on steam? and when i accept this the download fails every time i try, I've also tried running the game without it and nothing happens. please can you explain what is happening? I've been waiting a long time to play this i have a great gaming PC that meets all requirements so why wont it work? HELP!?
    Julie
    Try reinstalling the Slimdx.exe To reinstall these components go to the game installation folder: \They Are Billions\_CommonRedist - DirectX Runtime: They Are Billions\_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010\DXSetup.exe - SlimDX Runtime: They Are Billions\SlimDXRuntime_x64.msi for 64bits Windows or SlimDXRuntime.msi for 32 bits Windows. - Visual Libraries: They Are Billions\_CommonRedist\vcredist\2017\vc_redist.x64.exe for Windows 64 bits, and vc_redist.x86.exe for Windows 32 bits.
      Matthew
      Already attempted the solutions located at "http://steamcommunity.com/app/644930/discussions/0/1499000547495150286/" When attempting to run "SlimDXRuntime_x64.msi" (On a 64 System) I am prompted to reboot my computer. After a reboot I am still unable to begin the game (receiving the same InstallSlimDX.exe error). Any additional support would be appreciated, i'm feeling quite lazy and don't want to bother Steam for a refund for a game I think I will greatly enjoy.
Orongenschale
So it sound really great and the trailer is also very promising, but in my opinion there is also some great developer that just catched the money and stop working on the game. I be hopeful for you project and i continiue following you and this page to maybe buy this game a day. Greetings Orongenschale

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